good morning, america. the monster storm hitting the west coast will be the biggest one in years. massive rainfall could cause deadly mudslides and a major snowstorm targeting the eastern half of the country of the as much as a foot of snow headed for the northeast. ginger is live in california. new this morning, radiation leak. investigators revealing a serious problem at a nuclear waste facility in new mexico. 13 workers exposed to radiation. the cause of the leak still unknown. heads-up. new evidence one of the most popular sports in the country could be dangerous for your kids. why soccer players are seen with the same head injuries as seen in pro football. almost time for oscar.

one-on-one with ellen. she reveals what she wants people to remember about hollywood's biggest night as the race for best picture heats up, "gravity" versus "american hustle" and could " years a slave" walk off with it all? we're live in l.a. with exclusive access in the dolby theatre. here we go. >> good morning, america! ♪ ♪ i wake up to the city of angels to see my name is lights ♪ >> ellen seemed like she was wondering if it was a good morning. robin out there in l.a. she's in the dolby theatre before the oscars. the only one let iide and good to see you inside and dry. that weather getting so tough out there. >> oh, george, it is coming down, but it is not the rain is not dampening the excitement building inside oscar central. we are standing in front of the main orchestra section but this is all we can show you.

top secret operation right now. those white cards behind me, well, they're pictures of the stars on them who will sit in those seats all turned over so no one can see them. oscar people all around me making sure we're following protocol because we want you to be surprised. we have so much to bring you including our one opponent-on-one with ellen hours before she is set to take the stage. we do begin in southern california. it has been raining hard all night, the biggest storm in years taking hold across the region. ginger is here with me about 0 miles east in glendora, california. od morning, ginger. >> hey, good morning, robin. while so much of california is looking at this like liquid gold, in glendora, not as much. sandbags out, people have evacuated and k-rails, they look like construction barriers have been put up in case mudslides begin. that's a legitimate fear. look at this storm. it is so serious on the

satellite. we're only on the front end. ka curly cue is the actual storm itself. it will bring some gusting winds up to 70 miles per hour and for the mex 48 hours it will be a wild couple of days of weather in california. bracing for impact. >> dirt, rocks, mud and water and it's going that way. >> reporr: ahead of the deluge, two california foothill communities told to pack up and leave. >> they've come by with lo loudspeakers announcing mandatory evacuation. >> the fear. devastating mudslides, almost all of california parched by historic drought. add 2,000 acres of freshly torched land from last month's wildfires and it's a recipe for destruction. that dry and charred earth no longer has vegetation, the burn scars stripping the land's ability to absorb water. the only place for rain to flow downhill taking with it tons and tons of damaging and potentially deadly debris. >> that's a pretty big hill and

there's a lot of earth that can come down. >> reporter: more than a thousand homes are now in the impact zone. before evacuating their houses folks were piling up sandbags and lying the trees with cement barriers hoping to direct all that mud and debris away from their property. these new fears come after more than an inch fell on thursday causing chaos on the roads. this semi grinding right through a highway guardrail. and in the bay area, this pickup truck flipping over. so here we go, timing of the storm the next 48 hours, the worst of it but by os sunday itself we will be drying out a bit. you're looking at that low pressure system slide down the coast, like a nonstop rain in some places but drying out a little by the oscars. that same storm is going to eventually bring snow for the midwest and northeast. i'll tell you how much in the next half hour. >> all right. ginger, good to have you out here with me and theyed out the

red carpet early to protect it from all that is happening right now but you mentioned about that snow and those icy conditions, we'll go back to lara to talk more about that. >> robin, in the midwest they're dealing with it too in the way of bitter cold and deep freeze they're suffering through is creating a huge problem in some areas. abc's alex perez is live in wilmington, illinois, with more on that. good morning to you, alex. >> reporter: hey, good morning, lara. take a look around me. there is ice as far as the eye can see. i'm actually standing they are the shoreline but this behind me here is supposed to be a river, but the cold temperatures have created all of this. here in the chicago area we've actually gone more than 60 days with the temperature this season below freezing so as you might 3457b8g that is creating some major problems. there are waterways across the midwest that are jammed up with ice and here's the thing, it is not over. there is extreme cold and more snow headed to the midwest tonight and into the weekend and even when it warms up the big concern then will be flooding.

lara. >> all right, alex. not over yet. thank you. boy, no letup at all. we move overseas to the growing crisis in ukraine. the former president who fled the country is expected to speak out as armed troops align with russia have taken over an airport and government building raising the prospect of civil war. abc's chief foreign correspondent terry moran tracking all the breaking developments from moscow right now and, terry, you see these troops out there at the airport and other government buildings. there is a fear that russia might get involved. >> reporter: absolutely, george. good morning to you. what's happened in this whole part of the world today is mysterious and dark and more than a little dangerous as you point out. around dawn this morning, those bands of uniformed armed troops took over two big airports in the crimeian region where they had that raef lucien trying to pull away from moscow. the people in this crimeian region want to stay close to moscow of those armed men according to alex marquardt, our

colleague in that region, no insignias on that uniform, radio, well armed, well organized. there were loomers flying about they might have been sent from russia. but it seems more likely that they are local cadres coming to the rescue of a region they think is in danger. >> definitely trying to send a message. we will hear from the former ukraine president this morning as he's under threat of a new investigation from swiss prosecutors. >> reporter: well, this is a man whose gigantic corruption has been exposed for all the world to see. the pictures of his home were disgraceful but he is still the constitutional head of that country, he says, and he is determined to win russia's backing for a try at power. the situation here is a tinder box. >> thanks very much. . let's get today's other top stories from josh. new concerns now about a story we brought you yesterday. a radiation leak at the nuclear waste facility in new mexico. investigators now admit that the

problem is serious. more than a dozen workers have been exposed. abc's john mullers that been tracking it for us. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, investigators know this much, a container of radioactive waste leaked underground at the waste isolation pilot plant or w.h.i.p. more tests being performed on anyone who came in contact. >> we had the fix the immediate problem before i can think about what happens in the future here. >> reporter: the leak detected at w.h.i.p. two weeks ago and the number of those affected could rise as they're tested. while officials insist the levels detected were lower than what you receive from a medical x-ray they admit it's too soon to tell how dangerous it could be for those exposed. >> whenever you have a disaster there's always issues and mitigate and move forward. >> reporter: whip handles low grade nuclear waste located 26

miles outside of carlsbad near the texas border. right now officials are confident community members are safe. but they say they won't know the full extent of the leak until they can isolate and fix the problem. a process that could take several months. until then the facility is closed to all but 183 essential workers. all right, the good news, investigators say a filtration system kicked in immediately and kept 99% of the radiation underground. the bad news, some did leak and could take months to fix. >> john, thank you. a whole new level now of privacy invasion. government spies are accused of hacking into the private webcams of yahoo! users. dockments obtained by nsa leaker edward snowden reportedly show that a british spy agency with the help of the nsa recorded millions of screen shots from yahoo! messenger webcams regardless of whether the users were suspected of illegal activity.

now, yahoo! calls the electronic spying and i do quote completely unacceptable, end quote. shocking story from mississippi. a man who was pronounced dead has come back to life. the coroner said walter williams, you see him there, died wednesday of natural causes. and so they put him in a body bag and drove him to the funeral home. two hours later, he woke up and started kicking to get out of the bag. the coroner says williams' pacemaker had apparently stopped and then started working again. welcome back, walter. finally, a story of inspiration on top of that one, jason collins, the first openly gay player to compete in a major u.s. sport met last night with the family of matthew shepard, the wyoming college student murdered in 1998 because he was gay. collins says shepard was and remains his inspiration, of course, collins wears the number

98. he actually revealed to remember that year and to honor shepard's memory. judy shepard says she wanted to thank jason for keeping her son's legacy alive. >> great to see. thank you, josh. we'll get the latest on that kerry kennedy case going to the jury right now as they try to determine whether the daughter of robert kennedy should be convicted for driving under the influence of ambien. abc's gio benitez has the story. >> reporter: this morning, kerry kennedy's fate is in the hands of a jury. four men and two women. handed the misdemeanor drug driving case -- >> we're very happy that the jury has the case. we think the evidence went in well. >> reporter: the defense which claims kennedy unknowingly took the sleeping pill ambien the morning she sideswiped a tractor trailer in 2012 rested thursday after calling its final witness. dr. david benjamin a clinical form cole gist who helped get ambien approved by the fda said it can cause automatic type

behavior and zombieism. they might become impaired and not know it. >> this is a responsible woman. had she had her faculties about her she would have pulled over and called aaa. >> reporter: kennedy has pleaded not guilty and testified that the morning of the accident she had taken a generic form of ambien by mistake mixing it up with her thyroid medication. on the stand she said if i realized i was impaired, i would have pulled over. but in their closing argument, prosecutors said kennedy knew right away that she had taken the wrong pill. she felt it and i submit she was looking for an excuse to control her public image. an apparent reference to her famous family. many of whom have showed up to support kennedy every day including her mother ethel but in their closing statement, the defense insisted kennedy is not seeking advantage because of her family. she wants you to focus on the evidence. and here at the courthouse the jury heard four days of

testimony and, lara, a verdict is expected later today. >> all right, gio, thank you. now we'll turn to a health warning for young athletes. new findings this morning raising concerns about the risk of concussions and not just for football players. now for soccer players, as well. abc's jim avila is in washington with the story. >> reporter: the most popular sport in the world, more american kids play soccer than tackle football or baseball. long encouraged by parents as the safe alternative to its violent u.s. cousin, but this morning, it's linked to cte, the very same repetitive head trauma disease seen in some pro football players. new evidence that one of soccer's most exciting plays can cause brain damage. >> you have to be very careful when your son or daughter is playing soccer. you have to be very cognizant they can injure their heads. >> reporter: it is this move, the header that appears so dangerous for youngsters. players typically head it up to 12 times in a single game.

watch again. that black and white sphere traveling up to 50 miles an hour. and in soccer there's nothing between skull and leather. >> our son patrick was doing headers at the age of 3. >> reporter: patrick grange died nearly two years ago. his brain donated to scientists at boston university studying cte and those doctors made a startling discovery. the 29-year-old is the first soccer player found to have cte, the frontal lobe of his brain badly damaged, the same mind-numberimind mind-numbing disease that leads to dementia and depression. >> i'm saying that concussions and constant headers as a youth under the age of 14 should not happen. >> reporter: we reached out to the youth soccer fed indication but received no comment although most coaches will verizon cut back on header practice till high school but docrsrential vog

during the oscars tied for best picture between relief grandfather and "12 years a slave" so this could be a tie. it could go right down to who lists these movies as second or third on their preferential ballot so this is a nail biter. >> all right, chris, good to be out here with you. another check of the weather, ginger zee, the other big story is the rain. she is 30 miles east in glendora, california, with the latest on the snow for the midwest and northeast, as well. ginger. >> right. that's the thing, robin. we've already had over an inch and till going. we've got 48 hours. my fingers, if you could see them are starting to like as if i've been taking a bath. or been in a hot tub for awhile. that's how much rain we're going to be talking about. but, of course, it's going to become snow as it rocks to the east. through the weekend and for early next week, sunday into monday for new york city and boston, you can see in there, philadelphia too. that's 6 to 12 inches possible e

i can't think of a better way to end february. >> s. >> and thank goodness is february -- we want to go behind there and steal one of those name cards. let us know one of them. >> don't -- you are going to see someone tackle me if -- they'll take me down if i do but i'll try. >> we got deejay irie getting ready for the weekend. he is bringing it this morning. >> nice crowd outside behind him, as well, this morning. there they are in the bitter cold here in new york city. ooh. >> let's take a look at sandra bullock in "gravity." we all know she's up for best actress this sunday but she's already scored a much, much bigger prize. we'll explain that just ahead. and what if you could get by on just a few hours of sleep a night and not feel exhausted? you could have our job. for starters. that's sasha in the pigtails

disguised as a girl in the yellow shirt. >> jerry is coming around right here, right? >> jerry is in -- with the long hair. >> reporter: how strange is it to see your son disguised as a little girl halfway around the world. >> it's surreal. >> reporter: the fathers showed the video to us and to the fbi. the international dragnet tightening. >> i'm waiting right now for the word from law enforcement to get on a plane and go to europe. >> reporter: you hope that call comes. >> i dream of and pray that call comes. >> reporter: and what happens when we track down that mother? we do track down that mother and tonight you'll hear from herself how she explains this whole ordeal. we're with the fathers every step of the way this evening the very moment they get the call from europe. the big question, of course, can they get to the boys first? the moment they discover them. that's tonight on "20/20." every year a thousand children are abducted by parents in this country and taken overseas to foreign countries. >> to be there when all this is foreign countries. >> to be there when all this is happening is just incred

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we have had all week. high temperatures struggle to get near the freezing mark. most of us will not get there today. the clouds move in this weekend and a wintry mess on monday. >> thank you. bundle up. we will see you back here where there was a major

development right now in the crisis in ukraine. pitting east versus west. this morning armed men wearing military uniforms without official markings seized control of two airports in eastern ukraine. a region that is largely pro-russia but moscow denies any role in capturing those airports. meantime, the ousted president of ukraine, viktor yanukovych, who has fled to russia is now accused of stealing some $30 billion from ukraine's financial system and moving it offshore. and more than 1,000 homes in southern california have already been ordered to evacuate as the region braces for potentially devastating floods. up to an inch of rain per hour could trigger a fast-moving mudslide in the hills east of los angeles. those were left bare by a recent spate of devastating wildfires. ginger is there on the ground and she'll have a complete forecast in just moments. and it's not a mudslide but a burning coal mine tt

>> so i've got the hood up. this is going to have to stay for a couple of days before we get to that oscar sunday. sara. >> now here's a look at what's head on the "gma morning menu." in "pop news," mila and ashton, are they engaged? the telltale photos of a brand-new ring for mila. secrets of short sleepers. how some get by on a few hours a night. i think i sit next to some of them. great last-minute tips to gramour oscar party and dj irie coming up on "gma" in times square. ♪ "gma's morning menu" is brought to by new, fast-acting advil. nothing is faster. ♪ you and this ring on her

finger. a slight spoiler alert if you haven't managed to binge watch "house of cards accounts, that show had an epic twitter overlapse with the other drama on tv, "scandal." "house of cards" taking to twitter calling on the fixer in chief olivia pope to get to the bottom of it. scandal tweeting back, we're on the case. consider it handled and things went on from there. now, how epic -- you're done. you're done. >> so excited. >> imagine a crossover episode. >> oh, my gosh. >> that would be pretty cool. >> where they collide. >> i want to see a unicorn next. it would be so neat. >> i like the way you think, lara. if you're like me you have famous movie quotes burned into your mind and like me you probably get them wrong. here's what i mean. in "wizard of oz" most think she says toto, i don't think we're

fashion that made the show "sex and the city" a cultural landmark but the strength of friendship. >> you're human. >> i don't want him to know that. >> reporter: that depiction of female camaraderie according to the star of the show is now a thick thing of the past. in the april issue of "british harper's bizarre" sarah jessica parker says "sex and the city" which stopped airing exactly one decade ago in week was a morore innoce time. so much reality television and the women that dominate culture today are pretty unfriendly toward one another. >> don't call me stupid. >> reporter: just this week on "the real housewives of beverly hills" a brawl broke out while the women were away on vacation. >> shut up. >> stop. stop, stop, stop. >> reporter: a far cry from this "sex and the city" getaway. >> parker, who played the show's beloved carrie bradshaw says women loved her character because she was a deeply devoted friend and i think women really respond to that kind of girl.

>> reporter: it's ellen's second time taking center stage. >> how are rehearsals going. >> i have everything written and i'm sure -- i had things written months ago that i thought for sure i liked and was going to keep and i've gotten rid of them and i have new things then i'm sure i'll get rid of those and i'm sure i'll be writing up until that morning and i'm now working on what i'm doing throughout the whole show because i'll be in the audience a lot and playing with people a lot so there's going to be a lot of playing with people in the audience all throughout the show. >> well, see, that's what people love about you. i think that's important to put people at ease. >> yeah, i think there's -- first of all, it's just never been my humor to debt a laugh at someone else's expense so there's never going to be a mean joke or anybody will get hurt or no matter how funny a joke, if even if i think of a joke because it's not like i'm an angel. you know, i mean i am but it's important for ee to relax everybody because there's so much anxiety in the room. >> it's a big deal. colesville.

we have activity 395 northbound to the beltway. it is blocking the right lane of the 14th street bridge. 11 miles per hour on the gw parkway back towards 123. 66 east down from centreville about 34 minutes and it is slowly improving. tour theelays from 295 11th street bridge. >> a clear and cold morning. temperatures are on the rise after bottoming at 14 degrees at reagan national. 17 degrees right now with the windshield in the single digits. it feels like 4 in d.c. the field factor in the single digits. it is slow to warm up through the day today. lower 30'sto the with mostly sunny skies. expect it

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ultimate oscar party. are you ready? i have to bend over thinking of all we'll be doing. >> it's going to be great. >> he will london is going to be great too. >> it's going to be great fun. time now for a final check of the weather nearby here in glendora is ginger. how is it going outside right now, ging? >> still raining. now we're in a moderate band. i want to put a vote in for leonardo if i drop by the theater. big headlines which bridgeport, connecticut had a record low, my hometown of grand rapids tell to 12 below. look what it looks like in the u.p. of michigan. that would be snow and a person standing back there and in rochester, new york, a great sun dog photo. you get those when it's that cold, one of the beautiful parts of being in the arctic air much the timing of the low, well, it slips down the coast and some of the heftiest wind we have yet to see in southern california. a really rough next t

partnership, "gma" likes the oscars, we made over an oscar party with some tips from instagram users. "gma" contributor melissa rycroft shows us how. ♪ >> reporter: who doesn't love the movies, the glitz, the glamour, working mom diane diaz is a huge fan. >> i love going to the movies and used to go to the movies all the time. >> reporter: diane always wanted to host an oscar viewing party but thanks to her two toddlers party planning is easier said than done. >> i don't know that i will be up for throwing an oscar party. maybe i think oh, when the boys are older. >> reporter: fortunately we knew who to call. preston bailey, party planner to the tars. preston's overseeing lebron james' wedding, ivan ka's walk down the aisle and open's birthday party. the party master had a master plan for throwing our working mom the mother of all oscar surprise parties. what do you think will be the best part about

♪ i walk to the sound of my own drum ♪ ? this, of course, the official oscars promo video. ellen degeneres singing, dancing to a wonderful infectious, invasive one could argue hit "the walker" by fitz and the tantrums and we're going to be joined by fitz and said tantrums and they'll be performing "the walker" from "more than just a dream" but real quick, fitz, how did you get hooked up with ellen to do the walker. >> it happened with the director of "bridesmaids" he had just been inducted in the academy and approached ellen and said i want you walking down the street with a bunch of people in tuxes dancing to one of my favorite bands, fitz and the nt

♪ ♪ ♪ oh here we go feel it in my soul really mean it mean it so go ♪ ♪ gotta feel it out of control really mean it mean it ♪ ♪ i need to know feel it in my soul really mean it mean it so go ♪ ♪ gotta feel it in control really mean it mean it ♪ [ cheers and applause ] >> whoo!